Liquid holding containers that are made of paper, plastic or the like are typically provided with a pouring attachment or pouring spout through which the liquid contents can be dispensed from the container. These pouring attachments are oftentimes molded from plastic material and subsequently attached to the container. Once attached, the pouring attachment can then be opened to pour the contents from the container.
An automatic attachment device is utilized to automatically attach the molded resin pouring attachment to the container. These automatic attachment devices are designed to continuously advance the containers along a conveying path with the pouring attachments being secured or attached one by one to the continuously moving containers.
A parts supplying apparatus is typically used to feed the pouring attachments to the automatic attachment device. The parts supplying apparatus is designed to align and continuously feed the pouring attachments one by one to the automatic attachment device. Conventional parts supplying apparatus are mainly of the vibrating type in which the parts such as the pouring attachments are aligned and fed one by one.
Vibrating parts feeders or supplying apparatus include a rail arranged in a spiral shape at a fixed sloping angle. Vibration is applied to the rail while the parts are supplied at one time to the center portion of the rail. The vibration causes the parts to vibrate and thus align in a row and gradually move down the sloping rail.
However, with the vibrating parts feeder described above, problems exist in that a substantially long rail must be used in order for the parts to align in a single row. Additionally, due to the complexity of the shape of the rail and the structure of the overall apparatus, it is difficult, if not impossible, to reduce the size of the apparatus and the costs are prohibitive.
Furthermore, in the case of containers for holding liquids contents for drinking, the pouring attachment to be attached to the container must be in a hygienic or sterile state. However, when utilizing a vibrating parts feeder such as that described above for feeding the pouring attachments for subsequent attachment to the container, it is possible for foreign objects to cling to the pouring attachments as the pouring attachments gradually move down the rail. These foreign objects on the pouring attachments can adversely affect the sterility of the containers when the pouring attachments fed by the vibrating parts feeder are subsequently attached to the containers.
In addition to the problems identified above, vibrating parts feeders of the type described above suffer from the disadvantage that although the feeders can align the parts to some extent, situations arise where the vibratory action is not entirely effective to produce a well formed row of parts. Also, problems have arisen in the context of using the feeders to feed parts having different shapes. In this regard, portions of the vibratory parts feeder may not be well suited to the particular shape of the parts being fed and so difficulties arise in properly aligning the parts in a row, Thus, it has been found necessary in some instances to perform tests and effect design alterations in the feeder to address such problems.